Glass for motor vehicle lights



Nov. 5, 1940. o. BORSARELLI 2,220,639

-GLASS FOR MOTOR VEHICLE LIGHTS Filed Feb. 11, 1938 OTTAVIE BORSAREL-Ll ATTYS.'

, Patented Nov. 5, 1940 Ottavio Borsarelli, Turin, Italy Application February 11, 1938, Serial No. 190.108

1 Claim.

This invention relates to signalling lights for vehicles, and more particularly to a. lenticular distribution of light suitable for motor vehicle tail lights, especially tail lightsv combined with The glasses combined with a reflex reflecting surface, presently in use on vehicle lights, are constituted by a plate comprising a circular reflecting rim and a central plane-convex lens,

usually referred to as bulls eye." The bull's eye alone difiuses the light of the lamp and the glass must therefore be very wide in order to meet the optical requirements. In fact, the reflecting portion must have an area of at least square centimeters and the transparent portion cannot obviously be of a smaller area, if the prescribed light beam must be obtained. The result is that the device is very clumsy, expensive and not always easy to fit on the vehicle.

29 The object of this invention-is to eliminate the above mentioned drawback,by providing a glass which is of a smaller size than those presently in use through maintaining the same eiflciency.

According to this invention, the dioptrical surface of the autocollimating elements surrounding the central bulls eye have a' relatively small angular width suflicient for thepurposes for which the vehicle light is adapted and the autocollimating elements lie side by side in such manner as to avoidrestricted passages for the light rays from one'element to another through the glass.

The central bull's eye is constituted by a meniscus, the radius of curvature and thickness of which are so chosen as to strongly deflect a part of the incident rays from the lamp, so that said part of .the rays is distributed on the circular autocollimatingzone and issues from the 'dioptric surface of said zone illuminating this latter in According to a modification, the central le n.

ticular porti may be constituted by the combination of an outer convex lens and an inner di- 150 optric system formed by a torus-shaped meniscus. This arrangement has been found very efficient in practice for, besides afiording a luminous zgne of considerable width and a satisfactory distribution of the light beam in the cen- 55 tral portion, it has the advantage of reflecting In Italy February 18, 193':

also a certain quantity of rays falling on'the outer eye surface. This is due to the fact'that' the torus-shaped meniscus generates in the central portion a curved cone which acts like a prism, and reflects the rays falling thereon per 5 pendicularly and'within a certain angle. 1 The accompanying drawing shows, by way of example, some constructions of the glass for vehicle lights according to this invention.

Figure l is a section showing a glass in which 10 the eye is constituted by a concavo-convex lens;

Figure 2 is a diametral section showing a glass with an eye formed by a meniscus,

Figure 3 is a sectional view of a glass with an 1 eye constituted by the combination of a me- 5 niscus and frustum; v

Figure 4 is a sectional view of a glass with an eye constituted by the combination of a convex lens and a torus-shaped meniscus;

Figure 5 is a sectional view showing 'a cata- 'phote platev combined with the stop light and having an eccentric eye;

Figure 6 is a front elevation.

, Referring to the drawing, the plate constituting the glass for the vehicle light comprises a 25 peripheral reflex reflecting portion I and a central transparent portion constituting the eye through which the light from the lamp is diffused to the outside. The inside surface of said portion is formed in such manner as to deflect a portion of the rays towards the reflecting portion, causing them to emerge from the 'dioptric known constructions with a'central bull's eye.

As the figure clearly shows, the autocollimaft ing elements have dioptric surfaces of limited width and are arranged side by side so tha the ratio between the thickness of the plate in the optical axis of the autocollimating elements and the thickness of the plate between said elements is very near unity. Narrower passages in the thickness of the plate between an autocollimating element and the adjacent ones is avoided. The deflected light rays may therefore extend radially into the thickness of the plate and issue uniformly from all dioptric surfaces of the autocollimating elements, including the farthest ones from the central bull's'eye.

. -In Figure 2 the central portion is constituted by a meniscus l which afl'ords a greater distrie bution of light in the reflex reflector I. It is possible to further improve this diflusion by employing the arrangement shown in Figure 3, in which the central portion comprises a meniscus I and a portion having an inner fr'ustum-shaped I surface 6.

A still higher efliciency may be obtained with theconstruction shown in Figure 4, in which the central portion 1 is constituted by the combination of an outer convex surface 8 and an inner surface 9 constituted by a torus-shaped meniscus which, besides aflording an improved light distribution, has the advantage of reflecting in part the rays on to the outer surface 8 through the I presence of the point II having a curved surface, which acts as a prism; Figures 5 and 6 show a construction of a reflex reflector plate combined with the stop light and a taillight ofavehicle.

The plate comprises a transparent section 1 l, for instance of the type shown in Figure 4, arranged' eccentrically with respect to the reflex reflector section 12, in order to improve the illumination of the plate, andan expansion ll -o zvposed, with respect to the center, to the section llandcarryingthestop light H.

In the examples shown and described, the

diffusing surfaces are constituted by spherical and torus-shaped sections; it will be understood, however, that they may be constituted by sections of alinear lentic'ular or any other suitable form and that the form and constructional details may be varied according to practical requirements without departing from the scope of this invention.

What I claim is:

A glass for avvehicle light having a lamp, said glass comprising a peripheral section constituted by autocollimating elements each having a dioptric surface of small angular width and arranged 4 side by side, in such manner as to avoid narrow 

